assistirfilmes Chapter 356: Coronation Ceremony (1)
Chapter 356: Coronation Ceremony (1)
chapter 356: coronation ceremony (1)
kiel was going up the second set of stairs, behind the platform.
he walked up the rear stairs, reaching the platform. he was wearing white robes with gilded embroidery, standing in front of a crowd of more than a hundred thousand people.
"ah, so he's our new pope."
"i heard he killed more than ten thousand monsters in an instant."
"god hasn't abandoned us yet then."
not a single person was using the 'apprentice' suffix.
kiel looked slightly miffed, wondering just how the news had been relayed to the people.
but he was standing so far away that no one could see his frowning brow.
many people in the crowd still had the vivid image of kiel rushing to save the city, his gilded robes shining behind him.
everyone rejoiced at the arrival of their new savior.
the platform had been modeled after the temple in theomenia.
there were a set of stairs in front of him as well, which the crowd gathered around to look at kiel. the cardinals stood at the edge of those stairs and knelt.
"time to pray to our god of creation elmea to bless our new pope apprentice!!"
"okay."
kiel went down on one knee and the cardinals placed the pope's crown on his head.
he soon heard the cheers and shouts of gratitude from the crowd.
he could feel how much they appreciated his help, and he felt something warm gathering in his eyes.
"i see, so this is how this should feel like."
dogora looked at the crowd after vehemently refusing to strike a pose in public, his rear still slightly burned.
dogora felt like he had seen something similar before.
it reminded him of the time they went through the s rank dungeon, and the crowd that gathered around the building in its entrance.
he felt like everyone had been looking at digragni, merle in her cool pose, and admiral galara with the other dwarves.
dogora had barely helped during the fight, so he felt very out of place.
but now he did not have such reservations, he knew he had played a key part this time.
hearing the grateful shouts and cheers, seeing the happy crowd, dogora felt like this was simply the natural answer.
he began smiling, thinking of his future exploits and how much attention he would garner as well.
'it can only get better from now on.'
"yeah, you said it."
dogora answered freya, who spoke through the divine artifact kagutsuchi.
she did not sound like she would do anything more for the time being.
she could feel that her apostle truly kept their promise in his heart at all times.
then a cardinal addressed the crowd with a speech.
it went for five minutes, then five minutes more, and allen began to feel like it was getting stale by then.
but at least the issues of this continent had reached a conclusion.
now he would focus on changing talents, and began sorting his plans in the grimoire.
and then something happened.
"our god of creation elmea treats everyone fairly, so..."
(i know, i know. can you just get to the important parts already? we all know elmea is great and all that.)
then someone ignored the cardinal's next words, pushing her way through the holy knights and running to the base of the stairs.
"that's a lie. you're all oppressing the followers of gushara's sacred teachings!!"
a mother with a child in her arms shouted from the crowd.
the coronation ceremony that was supposed to give hope to niel changed appearance the instant that mother shouted.
the cardinals and kiel looked down at the mother from atop the platform.
"wh-what was that?"
kiel looked lost and confused.
he was still on one knee, but he raised his head to see what was happening down there.
"lord kiel, please help me! my child doesn't have enough to eat!!"
she sounded like she was pleading for her life.
"what?! what do you think you're doing interrupting this ceremony! guards, what's taking so long!!"
this was an important ceremony to instate a new pope apprentice.
such an event happened only once every few decades.
a cardinal shouted to the guards below the stairs.
they approached the mother holding her child, trying to drag her away from the square.
there was hardly anyone who was willing to show any support to the remaining surviving cultists.
allen desperately tried to decide what was the right course of action, while the mother continued pleading to kiel.
she was not only limited on food, but even her time allowed in the church when needing medical help was restricted.
apparently elmea's church was slowly tightening their grip on them.
that was what pushed her to call out for help, even though there was a crowd of a hundred thousand watching.
everyone who raised their hand looked at kiel, their eyes making clear they wanted help.
some of them looked desolate even.
"master allen."
"hm? what is it?"
"maybe we could move them there? to the island we obtained recently?"
"huh?"
sophie raised her voice.
she was referring to the floating island where they fought gushara, which allen had been thinking of using for his plan to destroy the demon king's army stronghold.
they had already contacted admiral galara, and he had agreed to dispatch a unit of magic engineer dwarves.
"i'm sure that island could provide ample housing for them."
"wait, have you been thinking about this a lot then?"
"of course. we do need people for other matters as well. i'm sure we can sort out the details afterwards."
sophie had been quite shocked when allen mentioned his plan to destroy the demon king's army stronghold.
she kept complaining, mentioning how they had just obtained an incredible means to move through the entire world.
(wait? wouldn't that be the best solution actually? i keep getting saved by my friends all the time lately.)
there were all the impoverished cultists, the floating island, dogora's exhausted state, and freya who required more followers.
allen felt like all the pieces were slowly falling into place and painting a cohesive picture in his mind.
he looked at sophie who had decided to present her opinion unprompted for the first time, then at dogora who had fought so fiercely for the first time.
allen felt like his friends had done a lot of the hard work to solve the pagan worshipper crisis.
"i see, you're right. that really is the only option."
"yes, thank you so much for listening to me."
allen had come to a conclusion, and sophie bowed to him, leaving him to take care of the rest.
he had realized the potential of letting them live on the island, all with sophie's mention of the place.
they were impoverished and persecuted as heretics.
there were five thousand of them there, so it was possible that there were still more than ten thousand cultists in the entire continent.
they had lived throughout the entire continent, considering how spread out the streaks of light had been.
the island was big enough to house many tens of thousands of people.
allen could already see the optimal solution.
he still needed to talk about it with one more person though.
he turned around and headed towards dogora who stood a few steps behind.
dogora looked at him with suspicion, wondering what he wanted, but allen wanted to speak with someone else.
"lady freya."
allen softly whispered into the divine artifact kagutsuchi fastened to dogora's back.
the divine artifact had lost its red glow right after dogora's rear had been burnt, looking just like regular iron.
since freya had lost so much divine power, she could not keep the divine artifact ablaze.
'hm? what do you need?'
she responded to allen's words.
freya was still in her temple in the divine realm.
but she could use the divine artifact to carry her voice.
"how powerful would kagutsuchi become if you were to gain ten thousand followers?"
"hey, wait. wait wait wait wait!"
kiel overheard allen's question, and realized what he was planning.
'oh? what are you getting at?'
but the goddess of fire freya did not quite understand yet.
"as you can see, there's a multitude of people here who have all lost their deity."
'a-are you telling the truth?!'
allen's grin slowly turned more and more cunning.
meanwhile freya was rather surprised, but seemed to be on board.